


forgive me for breathing

by neutralbutterfly



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Flashbacks, Post-Canon, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-30
Updated: 2017-09-30
Packaged: 2019-01-07 03:03:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12224412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neutralbutterfly/pseuds/neutralbutterfly
Summary: (Full game spoilers.)Akamatsu waits for Tsumugi to wake up.





	forgive me for breathing

**Author's Note:**

> A fic of mine that breaks a thousand words? I don't know either.  
> I think that this was supposed to be multi-chapter, but I gave up thanks to lack of motivation.

The fluorescent purple lights that line the edge of the simulation pod are the only light in the small hospital room.

Akamatsu sits on the floor next to it, hiding in the shadows of the machinery. The hospital staff keeps all the lights off in the pod rooms, apparently to keep the number of power surges low. She doesn’t really care why, and in fact, appreciates the comfort of the darkness.

The pod hums, the heat from the stainless steel warming up her back. Akamatsu closes her eyes and holds her knees up to her chest, resting her chin on top of them.

It’s funny, she thinks, that the last person to die would be one of the last to wake as well. Ten months after the fact, there’s no signs of life from Tsumugi’s pod, except for the slowly weakening beat of her heart, as shown on a nearby monitor.

Reasonably, she has no reason to be lurking in this room. Tsumugi framed her for murder and then let her die. There should be no sorrow, no longing, only a deep-seated, bitter resentment.

Like Shuuichi. Maybe she could stand to adopt his opinion of the comatose mastermind.

Akamatsu falls asleep, leaning against the pod and soaking in the heat. Maybe today, maybe today will be the day that she wakes up.

When Akamatsu rises from her nap three hours later, Tsumugi still isn’t back yet.

* * *

_“Catch me if you can, Tsumugi-chan!”_

_Nine year old Kaede ran along the riverbank, hair flowing in the wind behind her. On her heels was Tsumugi, her best friend since the first grade. Her friend reached out to grab her hair, but her fingers just brushed the blonde follicles before finding only the air._

_“S-Slow down! I can’t go that fast!” Tsumugi shouted, sounding like she was panting._

_Kaede spun around, her heart thumping. “Huh? Are you okay?”_

_Tsumugi rammed into her, and the two girls tumbled to the ground in a heap._

_After a moment of silence, they both burst into giggles._

_Kaede whispered. “I love you, Tsumugi-chan.”_

_Tsumugi’s smile brightened._

* * *

The colouring book is too cutesy for her to deal with. The smiling faces and goofy lineart makes her want to be sick, so instead of shading in the cartoon sun, Akamatsu snaps several crayons in half.

“Hey,” Amami crosses his arms, “we all have to share those. There isn’t money in the budget to buy new crayons every time someone gets frustrated.”

“Shut up,” Akamatsu replies, crushing another one to bits in her palm. “Nobody else uses them except Yonaga, anyways.”

Amami says. “Shouldn’t that be enough reason to chill the fuck out? On top of the fact that it’s not a nice thing to do.”

Akamatsu scowls at him. “I don’t have to fucking listen to you!”

“You killed me,” he responds, his gaze going dark.

She rolls her eyes. “No, I didn’t. We established this in therapy. You can’t pull the damn victim card anymore. If you wanted to make me feel like shit, you shouldn’t have told me to let it go!”

Amami glares at her, then pushes away from their small table and leaves her alone. Akamatsu leans back in her wicker chair, exhausted.

Her eyes glaze the table again, and she realizes that all the crayons she broke were blue.

* * *

_“Do you think about what the stars are like?”_

_Kaede looked over at Tsumugi, who seemed enthralled by the night sky. It was the end of the summer of their fourteenth year, and they were lying back on the roof of Tsumugi’s barn._

_“They’re just balls of gas, right?” Kaede said._

_Tsumugi said. “They’re so much more than that, really. Stars are picturesque, and capture a beautiful perfection, despite being light years away. A snapshot is saved here, in our memories, since they’re all long dead.”_

_“So… dead balls of gas,” Kaede amended._

_Tsumugi punched her arm. “You’re no fun, Kaede-chan.”_

* * *

Gravel dust worms its way under her fingernails. Akamatsu tosses another handful of stones at the garden wall, watching as they deflect off and hit the grass.

She’s bored, and Amami’s colouring with Angie, now. So she’s been left to her own devices in the yard. Not that there’s anything to do, there. Team Danganronpa’s property isn’t very big, especially now that they’re going broke.

It seems that the repercussions that the corporation is facing in the wake up the final season are enough to bleed the whole place dry.

Akamatsu’s pleased, really, but it still pisses her off. The students who woke up from their less than ethical virtual reality program aren’t allowed to go home until everyone is revived.

Part of her wonders if they’re purposely keeping the remaining people under in order to keep the rest of them in their custody. Akamatsu wouldn’t put anything past them at this point.

She hates Danganronpa and she hates the team and she hates everyone who’s ever supported them, including herself.

And excluding Tsumugi, because the intoxicating childhood nostalgia that reawakens every time the cerulean haired girl crosses her mind is enough to persuade her that there’s a good person, deep down inside of Enoshima Junko’s last proxy.

* * *

_“Have you heard of Danganronpa, Kaede-chan?”_

* * *

Four hours into playing a game of chess against herself, after spending two hours learning how, someone calls her name. Akamatsu swivels around in her chair, unsure of who’s talking to her.

Standing a couple metres away from her table is Shuuichi, who looks sick to his stomach.

“What is it?”

He reaches up to fiddle with his hat, having apparently regressed back into its safety, and mumbles quietly. “She… She’s awake. Shirogane, I mean. I thought that you might want to know that.”

Akamatsu nearly falls out of her chair. “She’s what?! Really?”

Shuuichi nods, and looks at the ground. “She asked to see you, too. S-She keeps saying your name, over and over again.”

Akamatsu smiles for the first time since she woke up, nearly a year ago. “Thank you so much. I… I have to go see her now! Bye, Saihara!”

Shuuichi doesn’t reciprocate her feeling of euphoria. “Yeah. Sure. See you around, Akamatsu-san.”

Akamatsu tears through the halls, pushing past employees and classmates alike in order to get to the room where her old friend has been sleeping.

It’s lit up for the first time.

Akamatsu bursts inside, and tears instantly prick from her eyes. Tsumugi seems to share the same sentiment, going stiff with surprise, but smiling nonetheless.

“Tsumugi-chan… I missed you so fucking much,” Kaede whispers, throwing her arms around the one person in her life that she’s certain she loves.


End file.
